Europe became a web of "tripwire" treaties. If one country was attacked, five others were dragged in. This turned a local Balkan conflict into a global catastrophe.

Whether in 1914, 1939, or today, the "Long Road" is characterized by At the start of the road, leaders have a hundred ways to maintain peace. By the end of the road, they often feel they have only one: to strike first or be struck.

The peace treaty ending WWI left Germany humiliated and economically broken, providing the perfect soil for radicalization.

The road to the "Great War" wasn’t built in a week. It took decades of structural decay in the European balance of power: